Media Commission to set up monitoring mechanism

Accra (Greater Accra) 29 July ?99

The National Media Commission (NMC) said on Wednesday that there was the need to establish a monitoring mechanism for all state-owned media to deal with all issues without bias.

It said this is to enable the media "to report issues ranging from minor editorial slips to complaints, omissions and commissions, as well as the amount of airtime public service broadcast allocated to political and other identifiable groups to address fact or fiction bias"

Mr Tim Acquah-Hayford, Chairman of the Commission, was briefing the press on the outcome of a two-day roundtable discussion held recently for boards of the State-owned Media and the Commission which was funded by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation.

The Chairman said it was agreed that clear criteria be laid down to make the monitoring system effective.

Mr Acquah-Hayford said participants were concerned about the lack of clarity about where the Boards stand between the NMC and the Ministry of Communications on "reporting responsibilities" .

"Participants felt that the stalemate had in the meantime made it difficult for Boards to plan and operate as efficiently as desirable".

Mr Acquah-Hayford said the main areas of stalemate between the NMC and the government include "the case pending at the Supreme Court to decide who appoints the Chief Executives of the State-owned Media - whether it is the NMC or the President.

The other are the impending divestitures of the State-owned media and the non-passage of legislation to transfer the Ministry of Communications direct oversight responsibilities of state-owned media to the NMC."